Wall Street rises on hopes for trade deals that could forestall a recession

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose Thursday after the United States and United Kingdom announced a deal on trade that would lower some tariffs between the two countries, the first of what Wall Street hopes will be enough agreements to keep a recession from hitting the economy.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% for its 11th gain in the last 13 days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 254 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.1%.

It wasn’t just stocks. Bitcoin jumped back above $101,000, and crude oil prices climbed, while the price of gold eased back as investors felt less need for safety. Treasury yields rose on bets that more trade deals with other countries may mean the Federal Reserve won’t need to cut interest rates as sharply as feared in order to prop up the economy.

Stocks and other financial markets have been swinging for weeks with hopes that President Donald Trump could reach such deals that would lower his tariffs, which many investors believe would cause a recession if left unchecked.

Trump on Thursday lauded what he called a “maxed-out trade deal” with the United Kingdom, which will keep 10% tariffs on U.K. products but would lower taxes on U.K. automobiles in exchange for greater access in the U.K. market for U.S. beef, ethanol and other products.

Trump said it may take weeks to finalize all the details in the U.K. deal, but he also gave potentially encouraging updates on talks pending with an even bigger trading partner, China.

The world’s second-largest economy is set to meet with high-level U.S. officials in Switzerland this weekend. China has been calling for the United States to cancel its tariffs, while Trump has said that he wouldn’t reduce his 145% tariffs on Chinese goods as a condition for negotiations.

Asked on Thursday whether he would consider lowering tariffs on Chinese imports if this weekend’s talks go well, Trump said, “It could be. We’re going to see. Right now, you can’t get any higher. It’s at 145. So we know it’s coming down.” He also said he expects the talks in Switzerland to be “substantive.”

Besides hopes for deals on trade, strong profit reports from U.S. companies have also helped to drive the S&P 500 closer to its all-time high set in February. It’s back within 7.8% after dropping nearly 20% below the mark a month ago.

Axon Enterprise, the company that sells Tasers, body cameras and other public safety equipment, jumped 14.1% after joining the list. It benefited from strong growth for its software and services, and it raised its forecast for revenue over the full year.

Tapestry rose 3.7% after the company behind the Coach and Kate Spade brands also reported better profit and revenue than expected. It credited new, younger customers in North America, among other things.

Molson Coors, though, described a different landscape when it released its latest quarterly results, which fell short of analysts’ expectations. Its stock fell 4.5%.

“The global macroeconomic environment is volatile,” CEO Gavin Hattersley said. “Uncertainty around the effects of geopolitical events and global trade policy, including the impacts on economic growth, consumer confidence and expectations around inflation, and currencies has pressured the beer industry and consumption trends.”

It became the latest company to either lower or pull its financial forecasts for 2025 given the uncertainty.

Krispy Kreme tumbled 24.7% after withdrawing its forecasts for the full year. The doughnut seller said it made the move in part because of “macroeconomic softness” and because it’s pausing the rollout of sales of its doughnuts at more McDonald’s restaurants.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 32.66 points to 5,663.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 254.48 to 41,368.45, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 189.98 to 17,928.14.

The U.S. economy has remained OK so far, with the Federal Reserve saying Wednesday that it still looks to be running at a solid rate underneath the surface. But pessimism has soured sharply among U.S. households because of tariffs, and the fear is that all the uncertainty created by them could be enough to force the economy into a recession.

A couple reports on the economy Thursday came in mixed. One said slightly fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. But another said productivity for U.S. workers slowed by more than economists expected at the start of the year. That could keep upward pressure on inflation, when tariffs could be set to raise prices for all kinds of imported products.

Treasury yields rose following the reports, and the 10-year yield climbed to 4.38% from 4.26% late Wednesday.

The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Fed, leaped to 3.89% from 3.78%. Traders pared back expectations for how many times the Fed may cut interest rates later this year.

In stock markets abroad, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% in London after the Bank of England cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point.

Indexes rose across much of the rest of Europe and Asia.

___

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.